William Byrd: The Three Masses II

Mass for Five Voices

Tuesday 11 June 2002, 8pm

with the polyphonic propers for Easter Day by William Byrd

William Byrd's three settings of the Ordinary of Mass for the underground Recusant Catholic church in England are among the most remarkable sacred works of the Renaissance. Their emotional intensity and sheer compositional genius raise Byrd above his contemporaries as England's finest polyphonist.

Byrd's settings of the mass Propers for Easter come from his collection of music for the mass, the Gradualia (covertly published in two volumes in 1605 and 1607). Byrd's settings of the movements of the Easter Propers differ from those of his continental contemporaries in that Byrd's settings maintain a sense of intimacy, focusing on the expression of the Easter texts rather than attempting to achieve grandiloquent gestures.

The Tudor Consort presents these remarkable works in separate performances in two of Wellington's finest choral acoustics.